The
benthic ecology group focused on determining faunal distribution and
abundance, bacterial abundance and productivity, and sediment community
consumption. In order to examine
these aspects of the sea floor a wide variety of
biological and oceanographic tools were used. The benthic ecology group
recorded hours of video transects and analyzed many tons of mud. Continue
down this page to learn about the specific instruments used to collect and
gather data.

The "mud
scud" is an underwater camera. It is used to take
video transects of the sea floor. MBARI scientists use this underwater camera
to examine the biological and physical properties of the sea floor.

The box core is an important research instrument used to collect mud and sediments from the
ocean floor. The box core enables scientists to examine the biological make
up of the benthic sediments. A wide variety of animals and bacterial
data is collected from the box cores.